SASKATOON

EVENTY years ago, at
the end of June, some
7,000 Doukhobors in

Tsarist Russia held a mass
demonstration against war
and violence. They piled
up their firearms and dag-
gers with wood, poured on
kerosene and applied a
flame.

This year, Canadian
a widely representative de-
monstration against war
and violence on June 27,
at the Dana radar base in
Saskatchewan. It will take
the form of a four-hour
peace vigil.

Responding to an invi-
tation from Doukhobors in
Alberta and Saskatchewan,
a 40-voice Doukhobor choir
from British Columbia will

/ make the trip to Dana, 40
miles north-east of Saska-
toon, to participate in the
vigil.

Koozma J. Tarasoff, a

Doukhobors are. initiating |

member of the vigil coor-
dinating committee, has
been issuing publicity ma-
terial. He reports that Prof.
Mulford Q. Sibley, of the
political science depart-
ment, University of Mine-
“sota, and Frank H. Epp of
Winnipeg, editor of The
Canadian Mennonite, are
featured speakers on June
Zire

_ Earlier this year Can-
adian immigration au-
thorities barred Prof. Sib-
ley’s entry into Canada for
a speaking engagement for
the Voice of Women in
Winnipeg. This provoked
an angry civil rights de-
monstration by students,
teachers and others at the

Winnipeg airport. The gov- _

ernment later reversed the
prohibition order with an
apology to Prof. Sibley.

Tarasoff says a number
of other groups will be
provided an opportunity to
speak during the vigil. Be-
sides the Quakers and

Mennonites these include:
Fellowship of Reconcilia-
tion, Voice of Women,
Student Union for Peace
Action, Molokans (a paci-
fist sect from California),
Doukhobors, Canadian
Campaign for Nuclear Dis-
armament, Unitarians, and
others.

A seven-point statement
of purposes will propose
to: ;

1) Ban the testing, manu-
facturing, stockpiling: of
nuclear and other diabol-
ical weapons.

2) Close and dismantle
all military bases and re-
call all military personnel
from foreign bases. Ban
Polaris submarines. De-
stroy existing stores of
weapons.

3) Dissolve all regional
military pacts and treaties.

4) Replace existing mili-
tary and national defense
establishments with a world
peace authority.

A long tradition of peace vigils

5) Abolish military ser-
vice.

6).,In cooperation with
the United Nations, create
international research
grants and institutions for
the study and promotion
of world peace through the
elimination of poverty and
injustice,

7) Promote friendship,
cooperation and _ under-
standing among the peo-
ples of the world.

The coordinating com-
mittee expects at least
J,000 persons to attend the
vigil. An “orientation ses-
sion” will be held at the
Kiwanis bandstand in Sas-
katoon from 10 a.m. to 11
am. At 1 p.m. the group
will meet outside the city
for a motorcade to the
radar base.

From 2 to 6 p.m.,, at the
Dana base, there will be
speeches, periods of sil-
ence, singing and_ the
reading of the statement of

purpose to the base wing
commander.

The vigil committee cau- —
tions that “only approved
placards” will be allowed
“in order to ensure that —
the spirit of the day will
be observed.” ;

Canada’s Doukhobors
held two vigils, which they
called “manifestations,” in
1964. The first was at Suf-
field, Alberta, on July 5, to
protest. chemical, bateri0-
logical and radiological re-
search. A second vigil waS
held at Orcadia, Saskat- —
chewan, on Nov. 8, to pro- —
test a radar base there.

Doukhobor interest if
peace action began many
years ago. After ther —
weapons bonfire in Russia
in 1895 they were severely
persecuted. by the tsarist
autocracy and they muig-
rated to Canada in 189% —
They have regularly com: —
memorated this day aS 4 —
peace day. %

By STAN LYNN

a |ITEM in the Financial
Post of May 22 will in-

rigue anyone interested
in Marxist economics. It was a
front-page editorial entitled,
“Reward for risk awfully thin.”

The editoriak welcomed a re- .
cent /increase in the profit -re-
turn/ on capital and sales, but
added that this was a “signi-
fieant reversal of the pattern of
earlier postwar periods of
growth.”

The Post lamented the fact
that from 1950 to 1952 the pro-
fits on sales dropped from 7.1
percent, to 5 percent. In 1961
the return had dropped to 4.9
percent. In boom periods of the
past it was as high as 11 per-
cent.

But the paper was encouraged
by a profit rate increase to 5.1-
percent in 1962 and to 5.4 per-
cent in both 1963 and 1964.

On its editorial page the Post
referred to what it called “hard-
ly-a bonanza” in the profit rate
when it chided labor leader
William Mahoney, national di-
rector of the United Steelwork-
ers,

The Post’s ire was aroused by
the following Mahoney state-
ment: Z

“It appears that the time has

come for Canada to tax exces-
sive corporation profits at a
much higher rate ... Only in
this way can the public be pro-
tected against corporate giants
which reap huge profits and re-
ward the consumer with price
increases. Only in this way can
we insure that some of the ex-
cessive profits will find their
way into projects and programs
which will benefit all Can-
adians.”

“No profits, no jobs,” was the
retort of the Financial Post. It
brought forward a few statis-
tics to show that “since 1957,
consumer prices have gone up
by 11 percent, and wholesale
prices by eight percent. In the
same seven-year period, overall
wage rates have risen by 28 per-
cent.”

“The hard fact is,” the argu-
ment concludes, ‘that in an age
of extraordinary technological
change, labor must, in its own
interests, work with manage-
ment toward the same goals.”

Perhaps the frustrations of
the Financial Post are not too
difficult to understand. Karl
Marx predicted them many years
ago when he worked out a sys-
tem of political economy based
on the labor theory of value.

The theory, simply explained,
savs the value of commodities

~ Profits too low?

S$$S$SSS$$

bought and sold on the market
is measured by the average
amount of human labor time
needed to produce these com-
modities.

When a laborer works in a
factory he has to produce com-
modities equal to the value he
needs to sustain himself and his
family at the given level of so-
ciety. The laborer is paid this
value (approximately) in wages.

But in his average work day
the laborer produces more than
the value he needs to exist and
this extra value, which Marx
called “surplus value,” is taken
by the factory owner as profit.

- Profit is not a magical pro-
duct of money, goods or machin-
ery. The source of profit is the
work done by the laborer.

“It is true that to produce value

the laborer uses machinery,
tools, raw materials — all the
property of the factory owner.
To understand the rate of pro-
fit, Marx explained, you have to
note that the capitalist uses two
types of capital — fixed, and
variable capital.

Fixed capital includes tools,
machinery, raw materials, the
factory building, the cost of
power and so on, and produces
no profit in itself. :

Variable capital is the total
wage paid to the workers in a

given period of time. It is the
source of profit.

Thus, the factory owner’s to-
tal capital investment is really
a relationship between fixed
and variable capital. It is fixed
capital plus variable capital. The
relationship is called the “or-
ganic structure” of capital.

While profit ‘is derived from
the circulation of variable capi-
tal only, it is always measured

against the total capital invest- —

ment (variable plus fixed capi-
tal) in a given period of time.

_Marx was able to show that
the greater the ratio of fixed to
variable. capital in a given in-
vestment, the lower the rate of
profit.

Of course the profit rate is

- also affected by many other fac-

tors such as the rate of circula-
tion of variable capital — i.e,
the more quickly the commodi-
ties can be produced and sold
and the more often variable cap-
ital can be reinvested in wages.

- higher.

‘ Another factor is the ralé o

exploitation. For example, ite
factory owner can keep WF.
low, his rate of profit will

As early as the second half
the 19th century Karl Mart is
ed that capitalism as a wh? as
continually forced to int
the ratio of fixed capital na
variable capital through mee"
ization — the introductio?
more plant and machinery-

Thus, Marx concluded,
is a long-range tendency 1
italism for the average
profit to fall. This is the 1007
the frustrations of the Fina”
Post.

But, William Mahoney }
quite justified in referrl
“excessive’’. profits. Even ©
the rate of profit may fall,
profit can still increase.
ample, a firm employin& “
workers can make twicé
much profit as one employ’
100 workers, even if the !
profit is the same.

Recent figures in the
cial. Post put the incre@
profits in the first quart
1965 at anywhere from 14
percent, while the rate of Pl
has remained almost the §

When the Post compare
increase in the wage rate
seven years to the rate °
fit it is only telling half a
A fuller picture emerges
you compare the increas
wages with the total incre@
profits. You get a 28 P&
Wage increase in seven
but a 14-18 percent increé
profits in only three mont

Even if the claims of thé
were true, there is still 1°
son: why the workers sho
tighten their belts to save
profit system. The tendency

OES

test

st0

nomic setup now has to eve
placed by a more highly*”
loped economy — socialism

1 ea

7) 2
June 25, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pag®